Rane MS, Robertson MM, Westmoreland DA, et al. - National surveys show that parents hesitate to vaccinate children against COVID-19, even when they are vaccinated themselves. Researchers herein investigated parental intention to vaccinate children and sought the related sociodemographic factors in a national sample of US parents.

• In March 2020, the CHASING COVID study, a nationwide cohort study, was launched to determine the effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on communities in the US.

• Researchers herein analyzed responses from the June 2021 survey round.

• A total of 1,162 parents (mean [SD] age, 40.6 [15.3] years) with 1,651 children aged 2 to 17 years were included in the analysis.

• In June 2021, there were 842 parents (74.4%) reporting being already vaccinated/vaccine-willing, while vaccine hesitation was described by 298 (25.6%).

• There was lower willingness to immediately vaccinate children among Black and Hispanic parents vs parents who were non-Hispanic White, women, younger, and did not have a college education.

• Higher willingness to vaccinate children was recorded among parents of school-aged children if they currently attended school partially or fully remotely vs fully in-person.

• Higher willingness to vaccinate the children was recorded among parents with a prior COVID-19 infection or who knew someone who died of COVID-19.

• Overall, parental race and ethnicity, gender, education level, and previous experience with COVID-19 and the child's age were the factors linked with the parental hesitancy to vaccinate children against COVID-19.

• Unsurprisingly, parents with hesitation to undergo vaccination were hesitant to vaccinate their children; however, concerns were also described by some vaccinated parents about vaccinating children.